Our local candidate Andrew Hunt stood for election in the Wisbech South ward in the Cambridge County Council elections.

He has been campaigning very hard, visiting every house in his ward, LPUK activists had been travelling from across the UK to help deliver leaflets and talk with those who wished to engage and discuss politics....

The pundits and our critics were adamant that we would get no more than 1 or 2% for a small party on its first outing. For a party that is generally unknown outside of the blogosphere, a party that the press refuses to acknowledge, name or to write about, 6.9% is a more than respectable result, one which on a national basis means that we have already breached the level required to retain a deposit.

My thanks have already been communicated to Andrew for his hard work and sterling efforts, and I would like to say publicly that the Libertarian Party as a whole is very proud to have such candidates.

Now we shall look towards the General Election, whenever that is, and make our preparations to compete with bigger and richer parties, knowing that we can gain the support of those who really matter, the voters.

As I have said many times, we always expected this to be a long slog and, who knows, perhaps the Conservative Party will suddenly turn into a libertarian government: however, I severely doubt it.

But we're in this for the long haul and, whilst many may vote for Robbin' Cameron and his Merry Men at the next General Election—on the Barbary Ape principle, if for no other reason—I suspect that the same will not apply at the election after that.

On a tenuously-linked note, I've just found the LPUK forum, but it appears to be for members only.

Surely opening up a forum to people of a libertarian bent - regardless of membership - would be a worthwhile thing to do?

That was always something I wanted to guys over at Samizdata to do.

As a British libertarian trying to find your way and understand more about libertarian ideas, there's nothing more frustrating than not having easy access to people and information to help you out - I always wished there was a forum where I could ask questions and discuss ideas (I still do!).